By Godfrey
Marawanyika
RENEWED bickering among Zimbabwe’s opposition only months after
a vow to bury their differences looks set to wreck prospects of a united
challenge to President Robert Mugabe at elections next year.

After they both fell victim to a crackdown by the security
services in March, leaders of the two factions of the main opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) promised they would no longer be
distracted from their primary task of ending Mugabe’s 27-year
rule.

But the uneasy truce broke down last week when the
main MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai was denounced as “an intellectual
midget” by Arthur Mutambara, who commands the loyalty of nearly
half the party’s lawmakers.

Tsvangirai in turn accused his rival of wasting ammunition
on the wrong target.

Analysts believe the only real winner is Mugabe, seeking
a seventh term in office next year at a time when the economy is in
meltdown and his country increasingly diplomatically isolated.

“This rivalry
will be an added advantage to the ruling (Zanu PF) party and Mugabe,”
said Takura Zhangazha, a Harare-based political scientist. “The
decision (to renew rivalries) is unfortunate for the people who are
fighting for democratic space in Zimbabwe.”

Other anti-government
activists felt let down by the MDC’s failure to put differences
to one side, saying it underlined the need for a whole leadership.

“What is
clear is that after next year, Mugabe will remain in power because of
these personality differences,” said Lovemore Madhuku, chairman
of the National Constitutional Assembly, a coalition of civic groups
agitating for a new constitution.

“The future
will now need a new leadership, because currently there is lack of seriousness
from the two factions. So after next year, there is need for people
who are keen to have united opposition to come out and look for new
leaders.”

Once posing the
stiffest challenge to 83-year-old Mugabe’s stranglehold on power,
the MDC split into two factions in 2005 over a decision to participate
or boycott senate elections which Tsvangirai said were a waste of money.

After Tsvangirai
and Mutambara were assaulted by Mugabe’s forces at a foiled protest
in March, both men made a point of standing side by side in court and
Mutambara declared that “we are going to manage our differences”.

But at a press
conference last Saturday, Mutambara, a former academic, delivered a
withering assessment of one-time union leader Tsvangirai.

“If Morgan
Tsvangirai is such a weak and indecisive leader who cannot embrace what
ordinary Zimbabweans are demanding, is he worthy of the presidency of
this country?” Mutambara said.

Tsvangirai’s
response came the next day when an appeal for unity contained a swipe
at his younger rival.

“The enemy
is not Tsvangirai. The enemy is Mugabe. If you focus on Tsvangirai,
you are wasting your resources on the wrong target,” he said.

Both factions have
sent representatives to on-off talks in Pretoria which form part of
efforts by the South African government to mediate between Zanu PF and
MDC ahead of next year’s presidential and parliamentary polls.

But the divisions
among their leaders has prevented them from presenting a united front
at the talks with sources saying that the two factions have put forward
differing demands on conditions for free and fair elections.

Former information
minister Jonathan Moyo, who has split from Zanu PF, said the opposition
was making a fatal mistake by failing to resolve its differences and
would hand victory on a plate to Mugabe.

“Another
fool’s choice being peddled in opposition circles is that Morgan
Tsvangirai’s faction of the MDC can or will win the presidential
election in March 2008,” he wrote in the privately-owned Zimbabwe
Independent.